He’s a professional class youth described as ‘smart’ by classmates, but no indication he was enrolled in any of Pennsylvania’s state colleges.

I also wondered about that. Twenty years old, apparently bright, working at a nursing home but no college attendance in his life?
Turns out he went to a community college, and did quite well.Pittsburgh Post Gazette: More details emerge about Thomas Crooks, the Bethel Park man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump.

After high school, Crooks received an associate degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County, graduating in May with high honors, Dena Rose Buzila, CCAC’s public relations director, said in a statement Monday. CCAC has no records relating to any disciplinary, student conduct or security-related incidents involving Crooks.

At the community college’s south campus in West Mifflin on Monday, a faculty member who wanted only to be identified by his first name, Carlos, said he had limited interactions with Crooks. But during those few interactions, Crooks had been “nice and kind.”

“He was a good student,” Carlos said.

He never had Crooks in class, but helped him 3D-print one of his class projects.

More information about the recluse family he belonged to:

Sandy Kovalik lives just two doors up the road from the Crooks family house. “I always go for walks and never see anyone outside,” she said.

Another neighbor, who only wanted to be identified by her first name Amy, said the only time she saw someone at the Crooks’ house was when someone was cutting the grass.

The Kovalik surname rang a bell. Dan Kovalik, who has also published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is an attorney cum “human rights investigator” who has written some far-left crazy type of books.
Such as one defending Maduro’s dictatorship in Venezuela. Or defending Russia in the Ukraine war. That to me is far-left crazy.

As both Daniel Kovalik and Sandy Kovalik are in the Pittsburgh area, it is quite possible that they are related. The Kovalik surname isn’t very common.
Given that Crooks had little interaction with his neighbors, such as Sandy Kovalik, it is not likely that there was any contact between Thomas Crooks and Daniel Kovalik, a presumed relative of Crooks’s neighbor Sandy Kovalik.

Just one of those interesting coincidences.

“Thomas Matthew Crooks” would be an exceedingly odd Jewish name. And the photos of Crooks himself are of the classic “You sure don’t look Jewish” type. I would be very surprised if the guy was Jewish, although I suppose anything is possible.

I guess it’s not surprising that sketchy foreign websites are now pushing that particular piece of misinformation. (Which hasn’t been mentioned in any legit news sources — and I’m sure there are quite a few that would be happy to run with it if it were actually true.)

I’m not sure what you mean by “dumb?” If you mean un- or under-informed on many subjects, I agree. If you mean feeble-minded, I disagree. She is very intelligent.

Unfortunately she is also too willing (for my tastes) to state strong opinions on subjects when she lacks sufficient knowledge to form a strong opinion.

neo
The hard Paleocon Right likes to blame everything on the Mossad.

Candace Owens also says that French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife was born a biological man.

She seems to be making a lot of money and has a lot of followers, so I’m sure my opinion is a joke to her, but I am saddened by Candace Owens’ recent behavior. She has a very quick mind and a strong moral compass on key issues. For example, when she talks about her grandparents and motherhood she is a passionate and articulate voice for the importance of Judeo-Christian values within the family structure.

But she often gets out over her skis on subjects she is not yet well informed on and seems more determined on building a social media following than ensuring she has a good grounding in the facts before taking a strong stance. I think I saw her first, several interviews when she exploded onto the scene. I liked a lot of what she was saying, but when she explained her change (a weird, sort-of catfight with a woman involved with “gamergate”) it was too much, too fast. Even though I agreed with her ultimate conclusion about the feminists attacking her, the logic she herself described that got her to her conclusion was not sound. Another red flag for me was her very early declaration that she was obsessed with Kanye West and always “knew” she would work with him. Not unusual for American women to create a fantasy in their teen years in which they will meet their music idols, but it was a red flag to me that she held onto this into her adult years and would mention this in interviews about her political change.

And she actually did achieve that, so kudos to her for holding on to that dream, I guess. But Kanye West has also devolved (or just became more vocal about opinions he has long held?) into an antisemite, and Owens appears to also share his views on that topic.

My unfortunate assumption was that this was going to happen. She was likely to espouse some unhinged beliefs far too vocally and stubbornly stick to them. But, as I wrote, she is an intelligent woman and I held out hope she could fill in the gaps in her knowledge quickly, as her star rose. She undoubtedly has the talent to do that, but has chosen the allure of fame and controversy over deep reflection on complex subjects.

Her recent attacks on Andrew Klavan, Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin and Ben Shapiro are obviously vindictive and sad. I’m sure it’s done no harm to any of them, except that they too feel sorrow to watch her go down the path she has chosen.